Since, I'm guessing, nobody visits this site for sports news, you've probably already seen this somewhere. But, it's still worth bring up. So apparently Larry Hughes, one week removed from tragic death of his brother and the Cavs game 7 defeat, felt that the best way to heal those wounds was hanging with some strippers. Two of them.

This photo is priceless, and I think it actually makes me like Hughes a little more. After all, nothing says "all a part of the mourning process" like hanging with strippers at Urban Beach Week in Miami. I don't know what's better, the t-shirt, the dangerously young girls posing with him, or the smirk on his face. Another example of your ticket prices at work!

I'm guessing that if you told someone at the begining of the season that at Memorial Day the Tribe would be 9 games in back of the White Sox, there's no way in hell they would believe that it was for second place. But nonetheless, that's the case. However, most people will want to point out that we were as many as 14 games out in July of last year and still brought it to within 1.5 games of the Sox before ultimately blowing it. That bad news is, this year we are chasing two teams, and we're already over 10 games out. This makes capturing the division title twice as hard becuase we now need both teams to falter.

The most alarming thing about this team is how they fail to show up in big games. This past weekend was all the proof you need. In losing 3 of 4 to the two aformentioned teams the Tribe not only dealt themselves a significant blow, they also gave the impression that they don't care. Yesterday's game was easily the most disturbing. After coming off a big win to avoid a sweep against the Tigers, you would think that they would have come out with a little fire. Instead Cliff Lee made it clear that he wanted to start his holiday early by serving up a nice bomb to the career leader in HR's at the Jake. However, the apparent lack of desire didn't stop with Lee, no pretty much the whole team protested the fact that they didn't want to work on a holiday by pretty much not showing up.

The point is, for those still holding out on the thought that the Tribe has proven that they can rally late in the year need to realize that they probably can't bank on that happening this year. Not chasing two teams, and not by simply going through the motions like they are now. We are very close to being on the verge of a disastrous season, given the expectations that were set by last year. The Tribe are quickly running out of time to prove that they actually care about winning.

Just when you thought we were in the clear this off-season, the Browns' Rueben Droughns reminds you that you are Browns fan and he pulls a litte domestic violence out of the bag. Freaking unreal. I guarantee that no charges are ever pressed, but that this become a huge distraction for the team all the way through training camp, probably culminating with a trial that will take place just before a Steeler's game that he won't be able to play in.

Can we go one season without some serious off-field drama? Hell, the last two years we haven't even gotten to the pre-season before someone loses their head. I think next year we need to just lock up the whole team for the month of May. Reuben now follows in the long line of domestic dispute, drunk driving, motorcycling, domestic dispute victim, drug use, partying with Plaxico Burress during the season, sleeping with William Green's wife (allegedly), and having women claim rape because they woke up naked in your house after a party (alegedly). Ridiculous.

Ok, I made that up. But at this point CC doesn't have to worry about not reaching that goal. Of course, now that I think about it, that wouldn't give him any incentive to lose weight. For the record, I have never complained about CC's weight. This is baseball; you can weigh 300 pounds and still be considered an "athlete". All I care about is him getting a win every fifth day, which is why I am happy with him keeping his ERA under his body weight–provided he can keep the latter under 300.

That's what I kept wondering last night while watching the Indians come back from a 4-run deficit, only to blow it against the Twinkies. It's really hard to get into the baseball grove in May when your basketball team just took it to a game 7 of the Conf. Semi's against the best team in the league. Hard to watch a baseball game and cheer when you know there's still 120 games left. I actually lost so much interest that at one point I watched at least 30 minutes of the NBA draft (fixed) lottery.

On the flip side, I found it VERY easy to get all pissed of when the Tribe blew it in the 10th. And to top it all off, the Tigers and Sox had to go out and win to complete the trifecta. Yeah, our baseball team (who won 93 games last year) is under .500 and 9 games back of the division leading TIGERS. Football season can't come quick enough. And look at that, less than three months until the Browns first pre-season game! Hopefully we're not counting down the days in August because our Tribe is out of division race. That would make for one long summer.

I think, like a lot of Cleveland fans, I'm not real sure how to react to this past weekend. I feels like a classic Cleveland collapse, especially since we were up 3-2 with a chance to close out at home. But, for some reason I don't have that feeling I got when the Browns blew their 17 point lead late in the playoff game agains the Steelers. Or When Pedro came out of the bullpen for 6 innings that end our season. For some reaosn this wasn't as bad as all of the classic Cleveland failures of the past.

The main reason why we don't have to be all worked up, is because we were such an underdog. I mean, none of the PD writers picked the Cavs to win more than 2 games. The fact that we took it to seven games (and actually it was Detroit that took it to 7) was an accomplishment in itself. At the beginnng of the season if you would have asked a Cavs if they would be satisfied with a playoff berth and a first-round win almost all would have said yes. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that we were 3 points away in game 6 from advancing.

Either way, if anyone was downtown on Friday it was a great day to be a Clevelander with all the buzz that was going on and the "Go Cavs" flyers in the office windows. I just hope it's not too long before it gets that way again. It has to be said, but it should really bear some meaning this time but I just can't WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR…

P.S. A big F YOU to ABC for airing the "Cleveland Heartbreaks" mini-documentary at the end of the game. That was a kick in the crotch.

It's 11:42am, and time can't be moving any slower right now. It's like Christmas morning and you have to wait for your parents to get up before you can open your presents. Agonizing. Seriously though, I can't imagine what the crowd will be like tonight at the Q, or all of downtown for that matter. I really think the Pistons have too much to correct in too little time, but they have had the killer instinct when their backs were up against the wall before.

There's nothing I can say right now that hasn't been said elsewhere, so I'm going to end this just by saying that I hope the next time I post, I'll have a huge picture of the Cavs celebrating a win. That would be amazing, but we have to remember this is all taking place in Cleveland, and nothing is that easy. Time to find out…

*I have to give credit where it is due, and not only did I steal this headline from our friend at GodHates, but he also has a very good article today. Check it out.